AIC Writer's methods

• Three-act structure


  Utilises many conventions of the detective genre, though some have been subverted
• Inspector's speech


  Does not provide any further revelations but simply repeats the moral message of the play
• Dramatic devices from Greek tragedy

  1. Unity of Place: the play is set in one location

  2. Unity of Time: the events are enacted in real-time

  3. Unity of Action: the play has only one plot
• Opening section


  • Introduces the Birlings, establishes their social positions and gives some clues to the audience that this depiction of a happy family is not quite what it seems
• Priestley's purpose


  Prepares the audience for the characters' downfall
• Structure of the play

  Each act presents the audience with a number of gradual revelations, twists and surprises
• Purpose of revelations, twists and surprises

  To increase tension, create shock and/or add an element of surprise
• Cyclical structure


  The play ends where it began with a call from a police inspector
• Cyclical structure


  May indicate the characters will be made to repeat the events of the evening, with another opportunity of redemption for those characters who had refused to do so
• Cyclical structure


  Could also indicate that these characters are doomed to repeat the same mistakes as before and will fail to 'learn their lesson'
• Denouement


  Priestley subverts the denouement of the play, by ending the play on a cliff-hanger with an unexpected twist
• Pattern of ending each act


  On a cliff-hanger will have been anticipated by the audience
• Revelation at the end


  A girl has just died and a police inspector is on his way will have created a thrilling end to the play
• Stagecraft


  • The events of the play take place in the Birlings' dining room
  • The single location of the play may signify the Birlings' relative isolation and detachment from the lower classes
  • It also adds an element of entrapment with the characters seeming unable to escape the Inspector's interrogation
  • The intimate location also creates a contrast between the private and public spheres of the family
• The revelations exposed are at this point a private family matter


  The impending visit of the police inspector at the end of the play will threaten to bring events into the public sphere
• The sharp sound effect of the doorbell when the Inspector arrives

  Interrupts Arthur's speech about the importance of looking after oneself
• The sharp sound effect of the doorbell

  Forewarns the audience that Arthur's attitude is about to be challenged by the Inspector
• The lighting changes from 'pink and 'intimate'


  Suggest that the Inspector will place the characters under great scrutiny
• The lighting changes


  May also indicate that the characters will begin to see events with greater clarity and in a new light
• Priestley's use of stagecraft

  • Cliff-hangers at the end of each act
  • Begins each subsequent act where the previous one finished
  • Helps to maintain tension and pace
  • Dramatic entrances and exits are used to create further suspense
• Priestley's use of Eric

  • Deliberately makes him a peripheral character for much of Acts I and II
  • His repeated absences from the stage are used to delay Eric's confession until the dramatic final act
• Priestley's use of stagecraft

  • The use of silence and pauses
  • Information about Eva and each of the character's involvement with her is only gradually revealed to the audience
  • The use of photographs is used to great effect
• The use of photographs


  Assumes great importance at the end of the play when it is suspected he may have been showing a different photo to each character
• The first half of the act


  Illustrates the prosperity and smugness of the Birlings
• The second half of the act


  Enables the audience to observe its destruction
• Dramatic Irony


  When the audience knows something that the characters do not
• Priestley uses a great deal of dramatic irony throughout the first part of Act I
• Priestley deliberately uses dramatic irony, in part, to portray Arthur Birling as foolish when the character smugly boasts about the Titanic ship and the future prospects of peace and prosperity
• Arthur Birling's speech


  • Presents a picture of a world safe for Capitalism to thrive
  • Shows a man confident in his own judgement and totally self-satisfied
• The audience is clearly aware of the sinking of the ship and the war which followed two years after the play was set
• Arthur Birling's pronouncements display him as a self-opinionated materialist whose confidence in his own judgement is a sham
• The Inspector


  • Speaks "carefully" and "weightily" and controls the events and dialogue
  • Uses many questions and imperatives
  • Delivers many lengthy monologues
  • Ideas relating to social responsibility are repeatedly interwoven throughout his dialogue
  • Continually uses the pronoun 'we' to highlight his message of social responsibility
• Priestley uses foreshadowing on many different occasions in the first act of the play to hint to the audience what is about to happen
• Foreshadowing examples


  • Sheila comments to Gerald about him not coming near her last summer, alluding to his affair with Eva/Daisy
  • Sheila comments to Eric that he's "squiffy", alluding to his drinking
  • Birling's comical remarks about not getting into the police court or starting a scandal, alluding to a potential scandal about to be revealed